Freshwater ecosystems support about 10% of the earth’s animal species, including one-third of vertebrates, but occupy <1% of the global land mass. However, extinction rates of freshwater animals are the highest of any ecosystem, and trend data since 1970 indicate population declines in freshwater species are twice as high as those on land and in the sea. In particular, the effects of fragmentation of riverine and coastal floodplain habitat are poorly understood. Without knowledge of the way in which biodiversity is structured within and between relatively pristine catchments, it is impossible to predict the impacts of future changes to connectivity that will result from changes in flow patterns; building of barriers such as dams; or fragmenting riparian and wetland vegetation through increasing urbanisation. A key focus of research in this program is to assess levels of fragmentation among populations in different catchment settings. This information will allow us to predict the effects of changes in connectivity and to predict regions and parts of catchments likely to be of high conservation value in terms of biodiversity and endemism.
Skills: biodiversity, molecular ecology, trophic ecology, population genetics, phylogeography